Church work brings on search for the holy nail

The country's largest builder is in the midst of a series of church jobs.

Fletcher Construction is part-way through the $12 million renovation of St Patrick's Cathedral on Wyndham St in Auckland.

Across at Ponsonby, it has started work on the St Joseph's Mercy Hospice, the conversion of a building which housed nuns but more recently boarders at St Mary's School.

The 1950s building in the school grounds is being converted into a hospice.

Fletcher's is gutting, refurbishing and re-roofing the house. It is extending the building and installing elevators. Fletcher's South Pacific division has built a string of Latter Day Saints churches in the past 30 years.

And the coincidence of working on so many church buildings has not been lost on the builder, which says it is "going in pursuit of the holy nail".